Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-09-20


An Interesting Process OF fIanufacture.
The Real Service OF Paper Car
) yvheeI-sStraw Lumber and Its Uses.
/ Bags and Boxes.
One Of the most remarkable uses Of paper |
is the building OF paper boats, under the
patent, recently expired, Of E Waters These
boats are made Of an ordinary manila paper
of good quality, usually in five thicknesses, IN |
all one-sixteenth of an inch thick, except IN |
parts where there is the reinforcement OF one |
OF two extra strips. The process Of making
them is simple. The cost is something above |
that of wood. Not onlyis travelling by water
indebted TO paper, but travelling by land a
paper car wheel seems even more contra
Gsction of terms than paper boat, yet IL Is
now generally acknowledged to be better,
safer and longer lived than enc altogether OF
metal It was the invention Of Richard II. Al
+ len, q locomotive engineer, afterward master
mechanic Of the Cleveland and Toledo rail-
road, who took for his aim in life the produc-
ton of better car wheel than those in use.
It is the body of the wheel only which is OF
r,aper. The material is a calendered rye
straw s'board" Or thick paper made at the
Allen company's mills. This is sent to the
works in circular sheets of twenty-one to forty
inches in diameter. Two men standing by
ME Of these rapidly brush over each sheet an
even coating of -four paste until dozen arc
passed in a layer A third man transfers
Shese LAYERS TO a hydraulic press, where
pressure of 500 tons or more Is applied TO
pile of them, the layers being kept distinct by
the absence Of paste between the outer sheets.
After solidifying under this pressure for two
hours the twelve sheet layers are kept for
week in n drying room at 40 dogs. Fahren-
heit: several Of these layers are IN turn pasted
together, pressed and dried for q second week,
and still again these disks are pasted, pressed
and given third drying of whole month.
The result is a circular block, containing from
NO to 160 sheets of the original paper COM
dressed to five and q half or four and o half
inches thickness, and a sQlidity, density and
weight suggesting metal rather than fiber.
The @paper wheel" is made up of this disk
Of compressed paper, surrounded by a steel
tire and fitted with a cast iron hub, which IS
bored for the axle; wrought iron plates pro-
tect the paper disk on either side, and all are
bolted together by two circles OF bolts one
set passing through q fange Of the tire, the
other through flange Of the hub, and both
through the paper center and It's protecting
plates
The real service of the paper is i'll interpos-
ing a non-vibrating substance between the
axle and the tire, so that the vibrations,
which in some unknown way rearrange the
atoms of metal so that it brittles and breaks
after long wear are prevented. Nature
always provides some way of wearing things
out, whether it be man, lest he lag superau-
GUS on the stage, or "the everlasting hills'
themselves, but in the case Of compressed
paper, art seems to have got ahead of nature,
for it seems not to wear out at all. The steel
tires of these wheels do wear down, and are
then returned in lathe to smaller diameter;
butt when they are gone and are taken OF,
the paper block appears again as good as new,
and ready for new tire The paper wheel
has the one disadvantage Of greater cost, but
its longer life and greater safety are in itk
favor
"Straw lumber, SO called, is a similar ap
plication of paper for building purposes; it Is
used, not for posts or beams, but III place OF
Iath and plaster, for sheatking, etc. An ordi
nary "straw board" paper is made on the cylin
der machirr-the. refuse bedding of stable:
being very largely utilized as the material
and is run through a vat of resin and otbel
yvaterproofing material heated to $50 dogs
f. A number OF sheets are then placed to
fyether between metal plates. and subjected
like the car wheels to enormous pressure in
hydraulic press. The result is a very hare
and solid blackish board, about three-six
teenths of an inch thick, which can be Gu
with a saw or chSel, and is marketed in slab
twelve feet by thirty-two inches, at price o
about $40 per thousand feet This is now il
t,se also for the interior of railway cars anC
L.. C,,,l
of the ordinary sort is q coarse paper straw O
waste used for sheeting or lining woodel
hous 3 It was put to good use immediatel.
afte the Chicago fire, when a western pape
company lined the 1900 houses, 16x20, whic
were run ND to accommodate the homeless
with this material, at a cost of 50 for eacl
house.
The non-conductng quality of paper he
caused curious development in America c
the parer box industry, so that the lover c
oysters may stake home fry in box"
keep IL hot, or q brick of ice cream TO keep
cool. The Chinese and japanese are said t
mako paper clothes, and their handkerchief
and napkins are well known TO us, but Amer
can achievements in this direction have bee
confined chiefly TO paper collars, cuffs an
Blossoms" sometimes with backing Of clotl
which may be pasted on after making, bJ
which is conioined with the paper at SON
mills by reeling the cloth off parallel with ii
web of paper, and pressing the two perm'
nently together between rollers.
The use of paper bags and paper boxes b
shopkeepers has reached enormous propo
tions. and the latest product of American il
Cenuity is a self opening bag" complete
automatically from the web of MANILA pap
by q machine on which its owners have bee
at work for eight years. This is folded fiat'
1t comes from the machine, but a single de.
ferrous flap with the hand opens it into c
absolutely square cornered bag which w
stand upright on the grocer's counter to
filed. Paper buckets, barrels and oth'
household utensils are either made by joi
Ing the edges of n flat sheet into a cylinder,
by stamping out the form from the pap
nulp. which last was the basis of the papi
rnache OF old days, which was nodded so
Into the desired shape, coated with succeSsi'
rsyers of asphalt varnish, and polished dow
Paper pulp Is also used III one process
stereotyping to make matrix fer the ~
ruetal--R t. Bowker in Harper's MagaZin
\ Passenger Agents Remarks
Il ,,,ox- ,,t,- Ia orp,,era1lv known tlnt alnOl